let her go

. . .

"Fawkes, I've been looking all over for you."

Darien didn't really care, not that Bobby had been looking for him, not that there might be a case, not that he actually had a job and should probably be getting on with doing it. No, all he cared about about, and just barely at that, was avoiding Alyx who had arrived in the building just after ten a.m. and probably still had not left though several hours had passed. Darien could only be thankful Claire had let slip about the special debriefing that had been planned now that Alyx had finally been released from the hospital, which gave him enough time to hide in the very last place they'd expect. He knew better than to leave as that would only force the Official to hunt him down and drag him back, but staying the building, in one of the lesser used rooms would allow him to remain out of sight until the coast had been cleared.

Besides if his presence had been so fucking important she could have told them exactly where he was and sent someone to fetch him.

And since no one had, clearly he hadn't been needed. Big shocker there.

"Well, you found me," Darien informed his partner without bothering to look up at him. "Where's the fire?" Might as well pretend interest or Hobbes would just get all pissy.

Hobbes sighed softly. "What happened this time?" he asked, obviously sensing something had gone down between Darien and Alyx recently.

"Besides having a gland in my head that makes me go crazy and try to kill my girlfriend on a regular basis?" Darien lifted his head to meet his partner's concerned gaze. "I told her I wouldn't see her again till the gland was removed."

"Ah," Hobbes responded. "That explains a few things." He moved and sat down next to Darien on the padded floor, leaning back against the equally padded wall. "Good choice, this was literally the last place I expected to find you."

"I coulda left y'know."

"Nah. Kid said you were in the building, but wouldn't tell us where." Hobbes tapped his toes together. "The Official didn't push it."

"So why'd you come after me now?"

" 'Cause there's stuff you need to know and I volunteered to fill you in," Hobbes answered.

"What could I possibly need to know? You guys came in to rescue me and I beat the crap outta you." Darien turned his head slightly to look at his partner. "Thanks for that, by the way. Not my favorite vacay by any means."

"Well, you were a wee bit QSM by the time we got there, just like they wanted."

Darien sighed softly, resigning himself to being filled in on the details he'd avoided up until now. "By they I'm assuming you mean Mirage."

Hobbes nodded. "Changeling, actually."

"Huh. Fits them to a T," Darien observed drily. "Does that mean the good guys have made headway in tracking down the asshole running the show?"

Bobby snorted. "Thanks to their idiot move of grabbing you instead of just killing you, yeah. We got the database they had on site intact and it has tons of info we're gonna exploit."

"So, they do still want me dead." All the more reason to distance himself from Alyx. If he were not a factor then they couldn't use him against her. It wouldn't necessarily prevent them from trying to kill him, but it would have less of an impact on her. Oh, who was he trying to bullshit; she would still do everything in her power to protect him.

"A'course they do, you are still a royal a pain in the ass and if it hurts the kid it makes them happy apparently." Hobbes shifted slightly, unsure how to say whatever needed to come next.

"Spit it out, Bobby. I can't get much lower right now."

Hobbes grumbled for a moment then said, "Ever wonder why you're still alive?"

"Bait. Why else?" Obvious even to him. No other reason to keep him alive, even if he had spent most of his time unconscious.

"Well, yeah, but these guys never have just one motive, so why else?"

Hobbes was going to make him work for this, wanted him to give a damn about more than his broken heart and Darien couldn't blame him. He was a hot mess and would be until he'd adjusted to the new status quo. One that he didn't want to adjust to, but he'd made this hellish bed he'd damn well lie in it. "To kill Alyx," he responded with.

"Try the other way around, my friend."

Wait. But that meant… "Alyx was supposed to kill me?" he whispered hoarsely. The scary thing was that it made perfect sense. It would destroy her on the inside, at the very least, to have to kill the person she cared most about in this world. "What? Was this some sort of twisted test for her?"

Hobbes nodded. "You hit the nail on the head. It was supposed to be her first mission for them in their evil little minds and they made sure to stack the deck in their favor."

"How?" Darien wondered aloud, still stunned that this mess had taken such a warped turn.

Hobbes managed a dry chuckle. "Do you really think we sat around with our thumbs up our asses for three weeks?"

Actually he hadn't thought about it at all, but now that he'd been forced to he had to admit it was odd. No way Alyx would have been anything but frantic once word had gotten out he'd gone missing. Not that he remembered much. He'd stopped for his usual cup of coffee, started his drive into work and then nothing. His car had been found undamaged with the keys still in the ignition the day after he'd vanished, parked out at the zoo of all places with no signs of a struggle or evidence to be found.

He had just vanished.

"So, what took so long?" Darien asked, his interest real this time. Maybe it was time to start paying attention to something outside of his personal life.

"That room they had you in was shielded somehow. Kid's people are still working on the hows of it. She knew you were alive, but could not see you. And they'd disabled your tracker. Last hit was by Cup o'Joe where the barista remembered seeing you, but not a sign of you after that." Hobbes sat up straighter, dragging his feet in to sit cross-legged; his full attention on his partner. "They spent that time making certain you'd go after us when we finally got there."

Darien closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, an odd headache building between his eyes. "You saying they programmed me or something?"

"No 'or something' about it. You run into any of their guys when you were wandering the halls?"

Darien nodded absently, the Madness fuzzed memories rolling through his mind. "A couple, why?"

"Did you go after them?"

Darien shook his head. "Nah, didn't want to blow my cover…" He trailed off as the words he'd overheard came rushing back. "'Our part is done.'," he muttered aloud. "'We need to make certain he'll do his.'"

Hobbes cocked an eyebrow.

"What the mooks said as I walked by. Shit, the whole thing had been a set up? All this just to bring her into the fold?" Darien felt righteous wrath surge to the fore, his head pounding even harder now that he knew the truth. "Will… will I still hurt her?"

Hobbes gave him a grim smile. "Nah. They're pretty certain you've fulfilled the programming, but…"

Oh god, what now? "Hobbes?"

"Mike wants to give you the once over. They found the program they used to screw with your head, he just wants to make certain there's nothing else buried in that cranium of yours. Like when the Keepy had her… sleeping probs."

"Not… not Alyx?" Even though he'd been the one to break it off, he still wanted to see her, to make certain she was okay and would continue to stay that way.

"She says Mike's better at this kinda thing and I ain't one to argue the point."

Not able to fight the sudden need, Darien asked, "How… How is she?"

"Banged up good, but up and moving under her own power. Keep's playing doctor with her right now, apparently the idiots at the hospital wanted to put pins in the kid's collarbone, which she refused to allow with violence. Claire's still listed as her doc and intervened on her behalf."

Darien felt the blood drain from his face at the mention of surgery and Hobbes noticed.

"Fawkes, it was not your fault. Why are you shaking your head?"

"They used me against her. Knew that once Quicksilvermad I'd go after her, they just made certain I'd go for the kill instead of some fun." He shook his head. "Christ, I broke her, literally."

Hobbes sat there silent for several long minutes, not instantly arguing the point as Darien had expected. When Hobbes finally spoke, his partner was forced to remember that he was a genius in his own way. "This why you split up with the… Alyx?"

"Yeah. Next time it might not just be surgery, but a funeral, and I… I couldn't live with myself if that happened." He cringed inwardly, waiting for the reprimand, to be told he was being a fool for pushing away someone he cared about over a maybe.

Instead, much to Darien's surprise, Bobby said, "In that case, I agree; you did the right thing."

Relief swept through him. Just having his decision, his heart-wrenchingly painful decision, be validated eased his bruised conscience somewhat. "Thanks, man."

"Hey, you may not deserve it often, but when you're right you're right." Hobbes stretched and stood, holding out a hand to Darien. "Now how about we stop these bastards so you and the kid have a chance at a happy ending?"

Darien smiled, shaking his head and allowed Bobby to pull him upright. They had work to do.